The Socratic Method
The Socratic Method is the use of open-ended questions to engage a student in discussion and guide him/her towards some kind of insight. This dialectical engagement generates a back and forth, a rapport between the tutor and the student.
The primary benefit is that the tutor can guide the student in several small steps toward an understanding of a larger idea. Leading the student in this gradual way can assist him/her to discover that an idea or algorithm that was initially perceived as complicated is not that difficult to master after all. The trick is simply to break the problem down into a series of manageable pieces.
The secondary benefit of leading questions is that the repeated queries promote active learning in the sense that each one prompts the student to think on his/her own in order to find an answer. The overall effect of this type of dialogue is to spur the student to actively make connections in his/her mind that he/she can later reinforce with practice.
The primary benefit is that the tutor can guide the student in several small steps toward an understanding of a larger idea. Leading the student in this gradual way can assist him/her to discover that an idea or algorithm that was initially perceived as complicated is not that difficult to master after all. The trick is simply to break the problem down into a series of manageable pieces.
The secondary benefit of leading questions is that the repeated queries promote active learning in the sense that each one prompts the student to think on his/her own in order to find an answer. The overall effect of this type of dialogue is to spur the student to actively make connections in his/her mind that he/she can later reinforce with practice.
